Frenchman on trial for murder of Aussie

A 36-year-old Frenchman has gone on trial accused of the murder 11 years ago of an Australian student who was strangled and dumped in a car park outside Paris.

The corpse of Jeannette O'Keefe, 28, was found rolled up in a sleeping bag in a car park in the northwestern Paris suburb of Les Mureaux on January 2, 2001 - three days after a series of events left her alone and without a bed for the night on New Year's Eve.

Brazilian-born Adriano Araujo Da Silva has denied the murder, but admits he took the victim home and had an argument with her, before handing her his sleeping bag and sending her on her way.

French investigators found male DNA under the victim's fingernails, but it was eight years before they found a match, when Da Silva's genetic profile was entered into a database after he was arrested for petty theft.

A lawyer acting for O'Keefe's family described her final hours.

"On December 31 she had handed back the keys to her flat, but was not due to fly home to Australia until January 2. She was due to meet a French friend who was an hour late," Caty Richard said.

"She called an Australian friend, but he was also an hour late, so she set off on a suburban train to head to her French friend's house, and met this young man, who must have sensed her vulnerability," she said.

At the opening of the trial, O'Keefe's sister Denise pleaded for answers about her death.

"The question is why, why, why," she said, adding: "I hope he'll be put away for a long time."